Clyde McConnelly
Clyde McConnelly was a mercenary and HMV pilot who fought alongside Axel Erachin against the Empire. Early Life Clyde was born on the planet Viam, a small agricultural world. He is the youngest in a baker family with two parents, no siblings (his parents had another child after he left, unbeknownst to him due to his nomadic lifestyle), with no ancestors who were involved in any wars or other major events as far as his family knows. From a very young age, he dreamed of exploring the stars and having adventures, but he always kept his feet on the ground. At the age of 17 he joined a local militia group to avoid having to take responsibilities at his parent's bakery. Two years later, he got his first taste of combat when a group of bandits raided the planet and tried to rob the bank, thinking that such a small world would be under the notice of The Empire. However, they were stopped before anyone got hurt thanks to quick thinking on Clyde's part. Following that, he received an offer for employment that would forever change his life. Employment under AXIS Clyde had accepted employment from a private military contractor known as AXIS Special Security Firm. He would go on to serve with distinction in AXIS, initially as infantry, and later in HMVs, eventually earning the rank of Commander and taking command of his own unit. He often moved around from planet to planet with AXIS, mostly squashing minor rebellions and ending clan feuds. He stayed with them for years, despite reaching the age where he would receive maximum pension benefits, but he found himself unable to leave the men under his command. The Liquidation of AXIS After serving the company for over 15 years, Clyde would receive his biggest job yet; defeating the enemies of one of the clan lords in the Prius System. While he had been involved in such conflicts before, this time AXIS was being hired out to wage a full frontal assault by another clan lord. The battle was a success, with minimal casualties, but it would come to haunt. Their client, a rival clan lord, had actually hired them out to rob them. While the majority of the forces were out, hackers hired by the client had infiltrated AXIS headquarters and cracked the main database, and completely emptied out the corporate accounts and every last one of the private accounts of all those invested in or employed by AXIS. Clyde was both. Following this, AXIS was liquidated and Clyde was left without penniless. Deciding to stake out an opportunity from the situation, he had any method of tracking his HMV removed from the machine and stole it out of impound. Rise || Chapter 1 Clyde would then go on to carve a swath through the world of freelance mercenaries, earning himself a reputation for professionalism and efficiency, until eventually coming to the attention of the Empire. Impressed with his skills and fighting prowess, Clyde was hired by them to join Axel and several other mercenaries to fight the Jackals. Following the success of that mission and a subsequent rest on Vegas, Clyde had been at a party when The Empire declared Axel and all who had served under him traitors and ordered them to be executed. After a desperate battle on a penthouse floor, Clyde and several others escaped and fought aboard the flagship of the Empire fleet to free the rest of the HMVs. Despite impossible odds, they managed to hold out long enough for the Paladins to rescue them. After this, they carried out a train job for the Paladins and split up for parts unknown. Rise || Chapter Two: Fall Start A year later, Clyde returned to Axel and the Paladins to take on another mission. This took them to a wedding, where they were to kidnap a man before he was to be taken into custody by the Gentlemen. The mission went terribly awry, however, and several members of the group lost their lives, and many were wounded. Afterwards, he fulfilled a promise made earlier to Haken Wastia and trained him as well as he could with the amount of time left. Later on, a Paladin rebellion occurred which quickly became a bloodbath. While the mercenaries and the Paladins managed to defeat them, the traitor, Karen Armstrong, and the rest of the Traitor Paladins kidnapped Axel and escaped. Afterwards, Krystal Desmond, in an attempt to share her feelings for Clyde, ended up kissing him, leaving him with mixed feelings. The next day, the mercenaries launched an attack on the prison facility of the Hydra League on Oasis, managing to free Axel and kill the traitor Karen Armstrong. However, victory came at a heavy price once more; many more of the mercenaries were wounded, including Haken Wastia becoming paralyzed from the waist down and Abraham Keyes nearly succumbing to his alcoholism, not to mention that Tara Bei Fong and Karl Vladick were lost in the attack. Together, in the ship they escaped in, they headed out to an uncertain future. Alternative version Clyde is set to have a voice cameo in the first Rise short . He's keeping close to his original self, even being unaware of what Krystal feels toward him. Category:Characters